Accenture

Accenture

Accenture logo
Company type	Public (NYSE: ACN, ISIN: BMG1150G1116)
Industry	Management consulting, technology services and outsourcing
Founded	1989
Headquarters	Hamilton, Bermuda (registered) 150 offices in 49 countries Chicago, Illinois, United States (largest )
Key people	William (Bill) D. Green
Revenue	$18.228 billion (2007) 1-Year Revenue Growth 6.63% (2007) Market Capitalization $28.569 billion (2006)
Operating income	9,367,181,000 United States dollar (2022)
Net income	$973.3 Million (2007) 1-Year Net Income Growth 3.5%
Number of employees	about 158,000 (2007) 1-Year Employee Growth 13.8%
Website	www.accenture.com

Accenture (NYSE: ACN, ISIN: BMG1150G1116) is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. With more than 158,000 employees in 49 countries and reported revenues of US$18 billion in 2007, Accenture is the largest consulting firm in the world and is one of the largest computer services and software companies on the Fortune Global 500 list .

History

Formation and early years

File:JoeGlickauf.jpg

Joe Glickauf had built the Arthur Andersen Demonstration Computer known as the "Glickiac" by 1951

Accenture originated as the consulting division of Arthur Andersen which was founded in 1913 by Arthur Andersen and Clarence DeLany as Andersen, DeLany & Co. Its origin goes back to 1953, when General Electric (GE) asked Arthur Andersen to undertake a feasibility study about payroll processing and manufacturing automation using computers for GE's Appliance Park manufacturing facility near Louisville, Kentucky. Arthur Andersen recommended installation of a UNIVAC I computer and printer, and GE agreed, which is the start of what became the first-ever commercial computer in the United States. Joe Glickauf was Arthur Andersen's project leader for the GE engagement and was responsible for the payroll processing automation, launching the era of data processing. Considered to be the father of computer consulting, Glickauf headed the Arthur Andersen administrative services division for 12 years.

Splitting from Arthur Andersen

File:Andersen ConsultingLogo.jpg

Andersen Consulting logo, 1997-2000

File:AndersenConsultingLogo.gif

Andersen Consulting logo, 1989-1997

In 1989, that division split from Arthur Andersen and began using the name Andersen Consulting. Both Arthur Andersen and Andersen Consulting consisted of groups of locally-owned independent partnerships and other entities around the world, each in a contractual agreement with Andersen Worldwide Société Coopérative (AWSC), a Swiss administrative entity.

Through the 1990s there was increasing tension between Andersen Consulting and Arthur Andersen. Andersen Consulting was upset that it was paying Arthur Andersen up to 15% of its profits each year (a condition of the 1989 split was that the more profitable unit - AA or AC - paid the other this sum), while at the same time Arthur Andersen was competing with Andersen Consulting through its own newly established business consulting service line. This dispute came to a head in 1998 when Andersen Consulting claimed breach of contract against AWSC and Arthur Andersen. Andersen Consulting put the 15% transfer payment for that year and future years into escrow and issued a claim for breach of contract. In August 2000, as a result of a conclusion of the International Chamber of Commerce, Andersen Consulting broke all contractual ties with AWSC and Arthur Andersen. As part of the arbitration settlement, Andersen Consulting paid over the sum held in escrow (then $1.2 billion) to Arthur Andersen, and was required to change its name, resulting in the entity being renamed Accenture.

By 2000, Andersen Consulting had achieved net revenues exceeding US$9.5 billion and had more than 75,000 employees in 47 countries , whereas Arthur Andersen had revenues of US$9.3 billion with over 85,000 employees worldwide in 2001.

Emergence of Accenture

On 2001-01-01, Andersen Consulting adopted its current name, "Accenture". The word "Accenture" is derived from "Accent on the future". Although a marketing consultancy was tasked with finding a new name for the company, the name "Accenture" was chosen by an employee from the Oslo office, as a result of an internal competition. Accenture felt that the name should represent its will to be a global consulting leader and high performer, and also intended that the name should not be offensive in any country in which Accenture operates. The choice of name also means that the company appears closer towards the top of any alphabetised lists, and retains the AC letter sequence of its previous identity.

It is also rumored that while the idea came from someone in the Oslo office, the thought that started that idea came from the training regime that almost all new employees to AC were put through, where many of the classes were called "Accent on C" a reference to the "C" programming language.

IPO

Accenture's banner hanging on New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) building for its initial public offering on 19 July 2001.

On 2001-07-19, Accenture offered initial public offering (IPO) at the price of $14.50 per share in New York Stock Exchange (NYSE); Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley served as its lead underwriters. Accenture stock closed the day at $15.17, with the day's high at $15.25. On the first day of the IPO, Accenture raised nearly 1.7 billion dollars.

Organizational structure

Its organizational structure includes divisions based on client industry types and employee workforces. Industry divisions, referred to as Operating Groups, include Products (e.g. consumer packaged goods or industrial equipment), Communications High Technology and Media ('CHT'), Financial Services (e.g. banking, insurance), Resources (e.g. utilities, chemicals, energy), and Government. The employee workforce divisions are respectively titled Consulting, Services, Enterprise, and Solutions.

Service areas

Consulting

• Customer Relationships Management
• Finance & Performance Management
• Human Performance
• Strategy
• Supply Chain Management

Technology

• Enterprise Solutions
• Information Management Services
• Integration
• Infrastructure Consulting Services
• IT Strategy & Transformation
• Microsoft Solutions
• Mobile Solutions
• Research & Development
• Service Orientated Architecture

Outsourcing

• Application Outsourcing
• Business Process Outsourcing
• Infrastructure Outsourcing

Controversy and criticism

Tax haven headquarters

In October 2002, the Congressional General Accounting Office (GAO) identified Accenture as one of four publicly-traded federal contractors that were incorporated in a tax haven country . The other three, unlike Accenture, were incorporated in the United States before they re-incorporated in a tax haven country, thereby lowering their U.S. taxes. Still, critics have panned Accenture's incorporation in Bermuda, generally because they viewed Accenture as having been a U.S.-based company trying to avoid U.S. taxes. The GAO itself did not characterize Accenture as having been a U.S.-based company; it stated that "prior to incorporating in Bermuda, Accenture was operating as a series of related partnerships and corporations under the control of its partners through the mechanism of contracts with a Swiss coordinating entity."

Enron and the Accenture name

There is a misconception that the Accenture name change was simply the consulting firm's attempt to "hide" from the Enron scandal. This is not accurate given the timing of events. The split from Arthur Andersen was requested by the consulting side in 1998, and finally awarded in 2000; the Enron scandal (starting with the reporting of the infamous "LJM Partnerships") did not occur until well into 2001, with the scandal culminating in the months after that.

In reality planning for a new name was underway before the arbitration decision was announced (Andersen Consulting partners felt that the word "Consulting" in the name was a drawback, since the firm was moving into non-consulting work such as outsourcing and ventures). Interestingly, internal Arthur Andersen emails in 2001 sent to all employees discussed future plans for Arthur Andersen to move ahead in the market with 3 names: Andersen Tax, Andersen Audit, and Andersen Consulting now that they had ownership over the name. Arthur Andersen was never able to revive the "Andersen Consulting" name since it was brought down by the Enron scandal before doing so. Accenture is typically listed in the top 100 corporate brands , so the name change appears to have been a positive for the consulting firm. The fact that it is disassociated from the Arthur Andersen name certainly proved to be a positive after the Arthur Andersen/Enron scandal.

Movement of jobs outside the U.S.

Accenture utilizes employees and contractors located in global Delivery Centres outside the United States. This enables Accenture to perform work (such as software development) at a greatly reduced employee cost as compared to U.S. employees. Accenture has been criticized repeatedly by Lou Dobbs of CNN and others for moving some jobs outside the U.S. that result in loss of work and employment for some U.S. citizens. Accenture utilizes many global Delivery Centres across the world (such as Bangalore and Mumbai in India and Manila in the Philippines) to reduce cost and increase profit margin in outsourcing deals with major U.S. companies. As a balance to the criticism, some indicate the criticism about movement of jobs outside the U.S. is not entirely accurate since employee population and Delivery Centres in the U.S. have increased each year since 2000.

Subsidiaries

• Coritel BPM [1] is the Spanish subsidiary of Accenture devoted to software development and outsourcing. It was founded in 1984 and currently has 6,500 workers.

• Avanade [2] is a joint venture between Microsoft and Accenture. It is dedicated to enterprise business solutions on the Microsoft platform.

• Navitaire [3] is a subsidiary of Accenture, dedicated to providing specialized solutions to airlines.

• Accenture Business Services for Utilities [4] is a subsidiary of Accenture, dedicated to providing Business Process systems and solutions for Utilities

• Accenture National Security Services is a subsidiary of Accenture, dedicated to providing services directly to United States government and military agencies. It was specifically incorporated as a US subsidiary to meet a congressional mandate that defense contractors be based in the US.

• Accenture Technology Solutions is a subsidiary of Accenture, dedicated to providing technology solutions to the client. The solutions work is mainly outsourced to low-wage developing countries like India, The Philippines and Romania - Accenture India Delivery Centre, Accenture Manila Delivery Center and Accenture Bucharest Delivery Center.

• Accenture SAP Solutions is a subsidiary of Accenture, dedicated to providing SAP solutions to the client. It has taken Coritel BPM SAP resources and turned it into this new unit called: ASAPS.

Visual identity

The typeface used in the Accenture wordmark is rotis semi-sans, designed by Otl Aicher in 1988.

The right-pointing carat character over the t is intended to indicate the company's orientation to the future. The character is similar to an accent mark in music.

Tiger Woods is a celebrity spokesperson for the company. The campaign uses the service mark "Go on. Be a Tiger," and the ancillary statement "We know what it takes to be a Tiger."

The corporate descriptor for Accenture is "High performance. Delivered.", which replaced the previous slogan "Innovation. Delivered." in 2004.

See also

• WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship
• Top 50 Business Intellectuals

External links

• Official website
• Con DeLauro's Statement on Award of Homeland Defense Contract to Accenture

Template:IT giants Template:IT consulting giants